Smkinven imports all data and then sets the inventory base year in the file as the year that has the most data values. The year of the inventories is set using the #YEAR header for IDA and SMOKE ORL inputs, or the /INVYEAR/ packet for EMS-95 input files (see Section 8.2, “Inventory Files” for more information on this header and packet). Usually, the year of the data is the same for all sources, so you will know what Smkinven will assume is the base year. However, if multiple inventory years are provided, Smkinven will set it using the year that is associated with the largest number of sources.

If you provide a future-year inventory to SMOKE, you must override the base-year setting obtained from the values given by the #YEAR header or the /INVYEAR/ packet. This is accomplished with the SMK_BASEYR_OVERRIDE setting. This is necessary so that later SMOKE steps will be able to verify that the episode year is consistent with the base year.